Editorial: Solutions needed for child immigrants

Posted:
06/17/2014 08:10:33 PM MDT

The number of migrant children illegally crossing the Mexican border into the United States without adults accompanying them has greatly increased in the last few years, leading to a new problem for U.S. authorities: what to do with thousands of vulnerable children, more of them girls and children under age 13 than ever before.

In what has been called an "urgent humanitarian situation," the Obama administration has asked Congress for $1.4 billion in extra funding to house, feed and transport the children.

According to The Associated Press, the numbers of such children have been on the rise since 2009.

Between 2008 and 2011, the number of children taken in by the Office of Refugee Resettlement ranged from 6,000 to 7,500 a year. In 2012 it was 13,625, and the government estimates the number could reach 60,000 this year.

Other news reports have said the children are not being turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency responsible for them, within the required 72 hours, that they're being shackled and denied adequate food and medical treatment.

The problem on this end is greatest at the Rio Grande Valley at the south tip of Texas.

On the other end, the greatest number of children are said to becoming from Honduras, called the murder capital of the world, as well as Guatemala and El Salvador.

Rampant crime and poverty in Central America and the desire to reunite with parents or other relatives in the U.S. are thought to be driving the increase.

Under U.S. anti-trafficking law, children who arrive alone are not supposed to be returned to serious danger, like many of these children face at home.

Authorities are supposed to find relatives to whom they can be released or put the children into long-term foster care.

But the numbers are so great, as is the difficulty in finding relatives to whom the chlidren can be released, that the system has been flooded and children are now being housed in emergency shelters at military bases.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said recently he would work with officials in Central America to try to stem the tide of immigrants.

More must be done both in Central America and in the U.S. so children aren't making the dangerous trip over the border alone, ending up in the system and costing U.S. taxpayers.

And more importantly, the children who are already here must be dealt with as quickly as possible so they are not held indefinitely in shelters, and while they are in those shelters they should be treated humanely.